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Mediacom: No refunds for not having WANE-TV

A letter which appeared in the People's Voice section of Tuesday's Daily Democrat, in which the writer alleged that Mediacom cable television is offering refunds of 89-cents for each day that WANE-TV is off the air, apparently was based more on wishful thinking than in fact.
The letter to this newspaper stated that customers could call their customer service department to receive the credit.
"The letter was definitely bogus. That is incorrect," Phyllis Peters, a Mediacom public relations representative based in Des Moines, Iowa, said Wednesday. She said the cable company is "not offering a credit at this time" and that no other incentives are being offered.
The cable company spokeswoman said WANE-TV and its affiliated weather channel were pulled from the Mediacom lineup by the Fort Wayne station's owners, LIN Media. The decision was reached after both sides failed to negotiate a retransmission contract by Sept. 1.
Negotiations are continuing, Peters said.
She called LIN Media a "tough customer in these types of situations," with a long history of pulling its stations from DISH Network, Time-Warner Cable and other media outlets over contract disputes. Peters said those previous disputes "were temporary, and we expect this one (involving WANE-TV) to be temporary, as well. We will continue to negotiate to reach an equitable resolution, but we also have to be diligent in our attempt to hold the line in every conceivable way."
Several Mediacom customers called the Democrat to dispute the accuracy of Tuesday's letter to the editor.